Rash of property damage reported to police

December 17, 2007

By Sharna Johnson: CNJ staff writer

More than 30 reports of damage to lawns, outdoor Christmas decorations and vehicles trickled into Clovis police Saturday and Sunday.

Dispatcher call logs show residents in several different areas of the community reported broken vehicle windows, punctured, destroyed or stolen decorations, and lawns and landscape damaged by vehicles.

Juanita Green lives on Hammond Boulevard on the east side of Clovis. She said she was made aware of damage to her front yard by a police officer who was in her neighborhood taking reports.

“They were trying to follow the trail that this driver had left,” she said, describing tire tracks and a path of destruction that snaked through her and her neighbor’s yards.

Green said she will have to replace at least four bushes and won’t know the full extent of the damage to her lawn until the weekend’s snow melts.

“At the time I was just saying, ‘The jerks!’ I can’t believe that somebody would do this just for fun,” she said.

Elaine Hible, who lives nearby, said she also will not know the extent of damage to her lawn until the snow is gone, but it’s about more than just grass.

In the spring, Hible said she invested more than $1,000 in sod for her front lawn.

“These kids don’t have (anything) better to do,” she said. “Why did they have to do (this) to people’s yards that take pride and ownership of what they have?”

On her block alone, more than a half dozen lawns were damaged, but many residents did not report to police, she said.

“I was shocked. I was upset to think that someone can go out and actually damage somebody’s property that doesn’t belong to them,” Hible said.

On the west side of town, one resident reported his inflatable lawn ornaments were punctured; residents on neighboring streets also reported destroyed lawn ornaments, records show.

And about a dozen residents in the north-central part of town reported rocks thrown through vehicle windows.